Chronicles of the Dead
by XpEaCeX
Summary: Angel meets a woman with a past even scarier then his own. PLZ rr and dont bash. thankz
1. Chapter 1

Angel, after settling into the dingy hotel they had chosen in New Zealand sat up in bed staring at the ceiling. Wesley was in the twin bed next to his and Gunn was sleeping on the small sofa that was in the hotel room. Oddly enough Angel couldn't put his finger on why they had said yes to coming to New Zealand in the first place. Of course Cordy wanted a vacation and Fred needed to get out a little more and Lorne, who had yet to come back in from the bar in the lobby, needed to go somewhere that wasn't LA.

Angel had gotten a call from a man who lived in LA and offered him 3 million dollars to come to New Zealand and fix the supernatural problem that was going down, he paid for the flight and then said when they exterminated the demons behind it all they would get their money. Angels head was whirling, think of all of the things that a person could do with 3 million dollars.

But Angel was still not sure why he had come to New Zealand in the first place, 3 million dollars was a lot but the man had said that there was at least a dozen demons trying to run the economy and government there and his children and family lived in New Zealand so he needed Angel to help the whole place.

Wesley sat up in bed and turned to the adjoining door to the other room. Someone was knocking, he stood and answered it. Cordy stood in her pj's with Fred behind her they both looked a little freaked out. They didn't talk for a few minutes then Cordy spoke slowly the words rolling off her tongue as if she didn't believe what she had seen.

That's how it started, Cordy and Fred terrified faces and lulling silence that enveloped the whole place caught Angel as odd but he didn't attempt to do anything about it for the fact that he was not use to the night life in these parts and thought it was normal.

"What is it?" Gunn asked the two girls.

"Turn on the TV." Fred said softly.

"Why?" Angel asked

He didn't get a chance to finish. The door banged open and Lorne rushed in slamming the door hard behind him and pressing his back to it his red eyes wild. He reeked of rotting flesh and booze.

Angel got out of bed finally. He walked to the window and looked out his eyes bulged in horror at the sight.

What looked to be at least fifty zombies were charging toward the hotel through the parking lot. Angel felt fear clenching up inside him because they were on the bottom floor.

"The bathroom window." Angel barked.

The men dressed and Cordy grabbed her robe. They made it into the bathroom and looked out of the window. Behind the hotel was an alley with a sewer drain only a few feet away. Angel didn't see any zombies so he went out first and kept Gunn and Wesley in the rear in case anything happened. He opened the sewer drain slowly and held it for Lorne to drop down into.

"All clear." He hissed.

"Go." Angel whispered to the girls.

Slowly they lowered themselves into the sewer drain as quietly as humanly possible. Angel dropped down in last and they stood around in the cold sewers Angel was completely unaware of where they should go or what they should do but fighting those zombies didn't seem sane.

"I just got one thing to say." Gunn said. "What the hell."

"That was not all of them." Cordy said softly.

"On the news this guy just keeled over in his chair." Fred's voice shook slightly.

"And then he got back up and walked away all shaking and wobbling." Cordy said rubbing Fred's arm.

"This cant be good." Lorne said looking around.

"We just need to walk. Find another entrance and see if we can find someone to explain this to us." Angel said to them.

They walked, for a good hour, Angel came to the conclusion that they don't use their sewers as much as they do in LA. Finally they came to a man hole that opened into the basement of an old hospital and by the smell of it was actually operating or might have been recently.

"Where are we?" Fred asked him.

"Looks like a hospital." Gunn said quietly.

"Smells like a hospital." Cordy said playing off of Angel like she did so often.

As if in sync nearly a hundred zombies broke through different places in the walls that were falling apart. Angel felt his stomach knot and but his hands shot out in defense mode. A strange thing happened then, something that could possibly haunt the gang forever. The ceiling caved right above their heads. But in a good way.

Black combat boots hit the ground hard in front of them. Angel's eyes traveled up the leather pants and the large belt around the tiny waist that held two large guns and a tazer. She wore a black AC/DC shirt and had long black hair that hung down the middle her back in waves with long bangs that hung over her eyes. Her eyes were what caught the attention. They were the lightest blue almost white with a darker blue sunburst from the pupil. She was pale like Angel but he knew she wasn't a vampire, something about her.

Her foot shot up as a zombie came at her and she kicked it hard in the face so hard that its head flew off. She did a full front flip and landed hard on her feet. She punched one zombie in the face then jacked another in the mouth with her elbow and kicked a third one in the stomach so hard her foot broke skin.

Angel jarred into action kicking and punching and throwing. Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia did the same. Since Fred had joined the team she had become much stronger and was attempting to fight but was thrown a few feet away and hit the floor with a groan next to an already thrown Lorne.

"Get DOWN." The mysterious girl yelled to them.

As if by orders they all laid flat on the ground and watched in disbelief as the girl lit up. Literally she began to glow softly then caught on fire, a blue flame not an orange flame. Then the flame exploded, still blue but when it touched a zombie they would catch fire like anything else. Angel watched his eyes bulging. He had been alive for 200 plus years and had never seen anything like this.

In a few minutes it was over, the flame was gone and the girl was back to the way she had been when she dropped through the ceiling. The thing that astonished Angel was that she didn't have a burn on her. Nor was there a burn on anything around her that wasn't a zombie.

Wesley was the first to push himself up. She turned to him her eyes glowing a soft blue color which Angel understood now. Her power came from her eyes. Her eyes darted around the room as Wesley stood in front of her staring her eyes locked on her thin frame and the fact that she couldn't have been more then five foot five baffled him.

"What in the hell!" Gunn yelled.

"What are you?" Fred asked standing and brushing off the front of her shirt.

"I have been around a long time." Angel said to her. "And I have never seen anything like you."

"I have." Wesley said slowly.

The woman still hadn't spoken, she looked slightly frightened as if she didn't know what to say but Angel felt no fear off of her it was all superficial.

"What's your name?" Cordelia asked.

"Rander." She said looking at Cordy. "Did any of you get cut?"

"I did." Angel said looking at her.

"Me too." Lorne said standing.

"How do you feel?" She asked them.

"My head hurts." Lorne rubbed his head.

"No different." Angel said honestly.

"Again." Gunn barked. "What are you?"

"Don't let your blood mix with theirs. It's all over from there if you do. If you can, stay underground." Rander said beginning to walk to the far side of the empty white room filled with burnt to death zombies.

"No come back." Fred yelled.

"Stay underground." Rander barked back to them her black hair trailing behind her as she strode across the white floor.

Cordy followed Rander. Her short hair bobbed behind her as she attempted to advance on the mysterious girl. Cordy stopped short as Rander stopped in her tracks. She turned to them her eyes full and fearful.

"Go." She hissed turning back around and pushing Cordy.

"HEY!" Cordy yelled as loud footsteps rang out in front of the door.

"It sounds like a..." Lorne said softly.

"Army." Rander said pushing them through a door behind them.

Angel looked around the room for the few seconds he had to survey the room. There were way too many pointy objects. He came to the conclusion that it was an operating room which made him know there was probably tons of more stuff in there.

"Listen." Rander growled her eyes glowing. "There is a refuge on the other side of town. Its an army base, I need to get there and if you think that you can take those little living dead monkeys then by god be my guest but I'm going to try to make a run for it. Are you with me or do you want to die in a foreign country? Well besides the vampire, you're already dead."

"So are you." Angel said to her.

"Good guess." She said looking at him. "You aren't from around here."

"How did you know?" Fred asked.

"Because," She said turning her eyes to the door then back to them ominously. "You're alive."

She slammed her boot into the floor and a large gaping hole opened below them into the sewers. She pointed into the hole as the entrance to the hospital was busted open. They all practically jumped into the gaping hole.

She held her small palm towards the ceiling and a small blue flame erupted from it blowing away all of the monsters trying to get in the sewer through the hole.

"Where's this Refuge?" Fred said to her softly.


	2. Chapter 2

Chronicles of the dead

Chapter 2

Angel followed behind Wesley holding the end of the group while Rander held up the front. What kind of a name was Rander? He thought shaking his head and listening above him. Cordelia and Fred seemed ordinarily afraid Wes seemed fascinated and Gunn just acted like he could have cared less either way.

"So what are you?" Lorne cut in.

"Me?" Rander looked at him. "I'm a dead person."

"Like a zombie?" Fred said her voice squeaking.

"No. Like a dead girl walking around." Rander said looking ahead of her.

"Like a vampire?" Cordy cut in.

"No." She said flatly.

"Like a woman who has been alive for nearly three thousand years." Wesley said to her.

"Like that." She said turning back to him.

"Zthara is it?" He said rudely.

"You pronounced it wrong." She said looking back infront of her.

"How do you know this stuff?" Cordy barked.

"She's history." Angel said slowly stopping fully and making the rest of the group stop. "That's why you're here, you did this."

"You got me!" She barked spinning around. "That's what I'm doing here I'm luring you into a trap of even more zombies then the ones I just saved your ungrateful ass from." She growled the last three words.

"But they said you died." Wesley said slowly.

"Do I look alive to you?" She cried throwing her hands up angrily. "What does my massive life story have to do with any of this?"

"You killed yourself!" Angel cried triumphantly having remembered something.

"I see you morons would rather talk about me then live so let's go I got nothing to lose I'm never dying." She said crossing her arms infront of her small body.

"Angel I want to live." Fred hissed.

"So do I." Lorne said quietly.

"I read about you. You killed yourself when you were cursed with the sight of all of the lives you had taken. You went to hell for your sins but when TarZar couldn't work his business without he brought you back but you had a conscience and a soul." Wesley said reciting the words from his books.

"It's like meeting a celebrity for the geeky." Cordy said shaking her head.

"Yeah so little recap? It's over. Can we please go I have to kill someone." She growled.

"So you're evil?" Gunn asked her.

"Yeah." She said softening slightly. "Who isn't?"

They left it at that and followed her the rest of the way to a large circular hole that was closed off by a large metal disk that wasn't a manhole cover. But before Angel could try to figure out what it was she had crawled up a ladder on the side of the wall then jumped up onto a landing right below the large hole.

"When I push this thing off there is a good chance there are going to be zombies all over the place. The refuge is about thirty feet from where this thing opens so you have to run like hell. I will do what I can to fight them off." She said feeling a slight pull to these people that she didn't like.

They all nodded in unison and began to go up the ladder one by one and jump the foot it was from the ladder to the ledge. She pushed the top off of the hole and pushed herself up. She was right, there was about a hundred or so zombies wobbling around and walking slower then anything but with the power to rip human flesh off and she knew there was little that her new friends could do to stop it.

She threw her hand out knocking one zombie to the ground and then kicking up as Fred came through the hole. Rander screamed for her to run as fast as she could to the large gray building that was once a prison but was now a place for the living to go.

Angel took Rander's side as the zombies circled them. He pressed his back against hers in an attempt to make the space where they could get their flesh ripped off smaller. The feeling of someone actually worrying that much about her as Angel felt at that moment, it radiated off of him, made her feel important for the few seconds before she saw Lorne come out of the hole.

In seconds zombies were on him. She jumped the ten feet and pulled them off of him he was trembling but Rander forced him to run. She turned to the prison and saw Fred and Cordy reaching it all right. Gunn came out of the hole and she yelled for him to make sure they got to safety.

Gunn grabbed Lorne and they ran for it as Wesley came out of the hole with his axe raised and began to chop heads off. Rander felt a sudden jump of fear as Wesley's arm was cut. She ran to him and kicked a zombie in the head knocking its head off of its shoulders. She pushed him towards the prison.

"I want to help." He yelled at her.

"GO." She yelled. "Don't be stupid!"

"How dare you." He called back.

"Angel!" She yelled to Angel. "Come on let's go."

The three of them took off running in the direction of the prison. Rander made sure to stay behind Wesley. Angel was on her side but they were so close. She felt something pull at her arm and in a second her shoulder was pulled out of its socket. She jumped backwards and kicked the zombie in the stomach and with her good arm she punched it I'm the face severing its head from its shoulders.

She ran behind Wesley pulling her arm up so it wouldn't lag her. Wesley reached the base first with Angel right behind him. He yelled something into the box next to them as Angel and Rander turned back to the group of zombies that was advancing.

The door slid open and the three of them ducked inside. It closed just as quickly chopping a zombie in half. The three of them collapsed to the floor. Rander closed her eyes and opened them again. A man was standing over them he nodded softly. Angel stood and pulled Rander to her feet then helped Wesley up as well.

"You finally made it." The man said to Rander.

"You thought I would send all of those guys in and not myself? Yeah." She said knowing she might have if it came down to it.

"We have been waiting for you. And the vampire." He said to her. "Your friends have been put up in the hospital wing for now."

They followed the man out of the entrance and into a large courtyard full of dying or dead grass with men scattered all around. There were zombies attached to large chains that they were trying to kill as if they knew how to fight. They followed him into the large gray building and into a hall that use to be white and was now spattered with red and a tinge of yellow. It smelled like death and pain.

"This is the hospital wing." He said slowly.

They turned down a hall that was white now but lined with tables and chairs probably for visitors when this was a prison. Past that they went into a room that the man had to use to key to get into. There was a white hall that they had to walk through then into a large room that had one massive conference table.

"Is this her?" She turned to see a woman standing at the head of the table, she didn't fit in with the rest of the men because she was clean and she wasn't wearing camouflage.

"Lilah?" Angel said rudely.

"She's evil." Wesley said to them.

"We know." A man at the table said to them.

"So is she." Said Lilah looking at Rander.

"What's the deal? I don't have all day here." Rander said rudely.

"Sit." He said to the three of them.

"Just one second this is bugging me."

She had Angel hold her arm and she shoved her shoulder back into its socket with a sick popping. She sat down in one of the chairs next to Angel with Wesley next to him. She crossed her legs underneath the table and leaned back.

"So Zthara is it?" She said to Rander.

"No one can pronounce it." She replied to Lilah.

"So your Three thousandth birthday is coming up isn't it?" Lilah said smiling at her.

"No it was last year." She said smiling back cruelly. "Damn I really missed the part where this has anything to do with the horde of zombies out there."

"I'm curious to know why you aren't a zombie." She said to her.

"Because I'm already dead moron. I thought you did your work." Rander said rudely.

"That doesn't make you immune to becoming a zombie." She said smiling at her.

"Oh well damn." Rander said rudely. "I'm bored."

"This is the point." She said slowly. "Michael's is running the show and this is why we need you. If you kill him and his stupid little crystal ball then we can all go home happy. But until Wolfram and Hart think this is over then I have to stay here."

"Fine." Rander said standing. "Tell me where he is and how do I get that crystal ball thing."

"It's not that easy hot shot." Lilah said to her. "He's about three miles west of us, somewhere you have never been because there are no sewers that way. He fixed it that way."

Rander felt a slight rush of cold enter her body and then it disappeared she looked down at Angel who was looking up at her and he nodded.

"So the big bad vamp is going to try to take this on? Luckily for you there is this eternal night thing going on as of like half an hour ago." Lilah said looking at her small watch.

"Since neither one of us has to worry about strength I think its smart for us to go alone." Angel said looking at Rander.

"You can't go alone." Wesley said standing.

"We can." Angel said to Wesley slowly. "And we will."

It was over then, the discussion that is. They left the conference room and Lilah and went into the hospital wing to discuss the plans with Cordy, Gunn, Lorne and Fred. They had the same reaction Wesley did but Angel had made his mind up. Although he was far more upset about it then she was.

After they had closed the book on any discussion with the rest of them they went down to the weapons room. Angel settled with two large axes and a sword. Rander went high tech with two large guns and a couple of grenades.

They left the weapons room and went out into the courtyard. They had a detailed map of how to get there and the secret way to get into his mansion. They left the courtyard and in more fear then some people knew they left the base. The door shot open and before they could process a thought that could protest they had run out of the door into the awaiting army of zombies.


	3. Chapter 3

Chronicles of the Dead

Chapter 3Rander knelt behind an overturned car. It had already blown up and even if it was to do that again she wouldnt be worried, its not like she could die of a fire related death. She rubbed her temples and looked infront of her, it was all clear that was but the sick sound of flesh being ripped off of a body was coming from behind her. Somewhere someone had found a dead body and a hoard of zombies had come and taken a big bite out of the decaying body.

Somewhere along the way Rander had lost Angel but they had made a deal when they were held up in an empty office building that if something happened to the other one that they would meet at the mansion but they would both make it there no matter what. Now she was trying to figure out a way to get past the zombies without using her powers and draining herself, she still had five miles to go and she needed all of the extra strength she could muster.

So she was going to take a leap of blind not so much faith because faith would only apply was there anything to believe in around the millions of zombies who were actually people. She had to remind herself that the zombies she would kill were actually people. What was with all of the morality? She had spent the majority of her unnaturally long life killing people and reeking havoc on the world and now she was thinking about how to keep from killing some flesh eating demons.

She stood slowly and peered over the car to the zombies who were still rejoycing in the disgusting noise of flesh being pulled from the body. Rander shook her head then took a chance. She saw an oppourtunity in the form of a building close to the hoarde of zombies. If she jumped onto the car and pushed off as hard as she could from the car she could be able to grab the windowsil of the fourth floor and throw herself through the window.

So, she did just that.

--

Angel pulled the map out of his pocket to examine the picture of large mansion that had been scribbled in red ink which irritated his eyes. He looked back up at the massive white struckture. If had a heart it would be racing but since he didnt he just let his legs twitch slightly. His fears were closing in around him, he had a choice save the world and possible get your head severed from your body or run like a girl and let the epidemic spread all over the world.

He was preparing to sneak into the house through the back when the loud rumble of a army car alerted his attention. He knelt in the grass as if they would hide him but he didnt need shelter. The army vehicle was fulled to the point of bursting with people. People he knew very well. Buffy Summers, the love of his life was driving horribly. Next to her was Wesley in the passangers seat. Behind them was Spike the recently ensouled vampire. Gunn was next to her and Cordy was in the seat next to him.

Angel made a decision at that moment. He ran for it crossing the street before they came fully into view and saw him. He couldnt drag them into that mansion they were all human and needed no reason to die, Angel was already dead and on that point so was Rander.

He ran up the back side of the house and hopped the stone fence. He dropped into the grass and raced across the grass to the side of the mansion where he climbed up the side of the house to the top where he found an air duct that led into the house and ultimately on the path that he desperatly needed to be on.

He climbed through the duct that was a little tight around the shoulders but he was lucky enough to be able to fit at all. He crawled for a few minutes doing what he did best which was be quiet and sneak around. he reached the vent that was marked on the map and then slipped out of it noiselessly.

Angel dropped into a sickly marroon colored hall. He cringed at the sight of the ungly color but what creeped him out more was the multiple pictures along the walls of men that looked older then him. He looked down at the map, it told him to go to the last portrait on the left then lift it open. He did exactly that and behind the picture was a safe. He turned the lock on the safe three times everytime he heard a familiar click as if he were on a game show and he had gotten the question right. On the third number the safe poped open almost hitting him in the face.

Inside the safe there was a key, Angel pulled the key out and closed the safe before he could even think about this being a set up, without Rander his odds looked dim thats why they sent those two out there. They were champions, Angel could feel it just being around her, she was a champion just like him.

He walked down to the end of the hallway and a door that blended in almost perfectly with the wall. He pushed the edge of the door and it came open slightly. He pulled that door open and beyond that door there was a large steel door with a place to put a key. He went down the small hall amazed at the time he had made through the mansion but also aware that whatever was behind that door had to be bad or else they wouldnt have locked it inside.

----

Rander watched silently as Angel slipped into the duct on top of the house. She knew she needed to join him but chances where someone inside that mansion knew that he was coming and she had to hold them off or beat the crap out of them. So she did what she did best, she climmed the stairs to the mansion and prepared herself for a full on war.

To be polite she rang the doorbell, after the three seconds she had waited she kicked the door down with her booted foot. The door banged open onto the other side. What she found inside was as strange as anything and confirmed that this was a magical thing.

Inside the mansion in the parlor sat nearly thirteen well dressed men and women. The sight of Rander probably scared the crap out of them. She wasnt tall but her leather pants and her ACDC shirt made her look scary and her light blue eyes probably would set a person off but the fact that she had just kicked down their front door was proabably what got them.

She passed them and headed for a staricase that winded up from a large entryway with marble floor. She scaled the stairs in a few long strides. She knew Angel was getting there the moment that she was running up the stairs and according to her suspicions something big and yucky was in this place. She didnt have to run far.

She was in a wide hallway with stipped wall paper and a few portraits of families. She turned to her left, the wall was leading into the core of the house and she could feel a serious amount of heat from the room and movement, lots of movement.

Something crashed on the other side of the wall and she knew that there was something going on. So she did what she could, she slammed her tiny fist into the wall and she hit solid metal. It vibrated off of her hand, it hadnt hurt much but she knew she could get through it by strenght. She began to pull away from the outer wall and when she had enough space to fit herself in she put her hand against the metal. A small flame showed around her hand, and at the heat she was producing the wall began to melt.

Finally the whole side of the wall peeled away and she saw inside. Angel laid motionlessly on the tiled floor of what looked to be a lab. There was a long steel table and ontop of it was an orb being held up by a black stand with a soft cloth below it. Rander turned to her to head to the side almost two seconds to late. She was hit upside the head with a large clawed hand. What the demon had anticipated was that she didnt take pain that Angel did, because she didnt take pain.

She shot her foot out drop kicking the demon and making it fall on its back. She saw now that it was red with skin that looked like it would crackel and peel off. The demon was almost seven feet tall and absolutley not bulletproof. She crossed the room to the orb and lifted it up off of its thing.

The demon jumped up and charged at Rander.

"Got your back!" She heard a new unfamiliar voice from behind her.

A bleach blonde vampire jumped onto the demons back while a small blonde haired girl came at the demon from the front, Rander was at a loss to knowing where they came from but they obviously were sneaky champions and the girl smelled like a slayer. Rander took the orb and threw down onto the ground with all of the strength she had in her.

It hit the ground and a white light escaped from it blowing past all of them and threw past them and out of the house. Fred and Gunn came through the hole that she had made and went at the demon with a large axe. Wesley and Cordy came through an open door that Rander had failed to notice both heavily equipped with weapons.

But the Slayer snapped the demons neck and then when it began to move again Gunn chopped its head off. Rander heard the faintest clicking and looked at the dead demon. Strapped to its demony claw was a pack and she knew what was inside of it.

"We have to get out of here." She said to them looking at the pack.

"What?" Angel said moving slightly.

"Get up come on." She said looking at Angel.

Wes knelt next to the pack and opened it. As she had suspected, it was a bomb and the small red flashing numbers that were so Die Hard where blinking twenty seconds. She grabbed did the only thing she knew logical. She grabbed the bomb and ran for it. She ran out of the hole in wall and then to one of the large windows on the hall she had been in. She jumped out of the window and while she was midair falling she bomb exploded. She hit the ground without a scratch on her but pain in every section of her body.

She laid on the ground her body writing in pain as the group circled around the window to look down at her. She closed her eyes and everything was dark, so maybe the unkillable can die.


End file.
